The National Investigation Agency and Uttar Pradesh police have found demonetized notes worth about Rs 100 crore from an under construction house in Kanpur, which has become one of the biggest hauls since old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 banknotes were banned in November 2016. The currency belonged to four-five “individuals or companies” including a distinguished detergent-maker, an NIA official said.

A UP police official said that a builder from Sisamau took the team to the site where the currency was held. According to the investigating agency suspicions, the cash was kept a secret with an intention of converting the money into legal currency through illegal ways. A senior NIA official spoke on the condition of anonymity, “We got the information that huge amount of demonetized currency was being stored in an under-construction house in the Swarup Nagar locality of Kanpur…Since there was no terror angle involved, the information was shared with the UP police and a joint raid was conducted.

Following the government banned 500 and 1000 rupee notes, hundreds of crores of the demonetized currency have been directed into the formal banking system of which a larger part of them is illegal. More than 99% of the demonetized notes have been returned to the banks, as per the RBI estimates. The Income Tax (I-T) department has been enlightened about the recovery and asked to find out how the money was to be exchanged. In November last year, the NIA had recovered Rs 36.34 crore in demonetized money in Delhi.